LICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 
IN  MEMORIAM 


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ALICE   FREEMAN   PALMER 
IN   MEMORIAM 


ALICE   FREEMAN   PALMER 

IN    MEMORIAM 
ISIDCCCLV— MDCCCCII 


ASSOCIATION    OF   COLLEGIATE   ALUMNJL 
MDCCCCIII 


D.  B.  Updike,  The  Menymount  Press,  Boston 


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CONTENTS 


LIBRARY 

SIAie  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

MMUAl  AHTS  AND  HOME  tCONOMtOS 

SANTA  BARBARA,  «ALIFORNIA 


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ALICE   FREEMAN    PALMER  page 

A  Memorial  Skktch  1 

ALICE   FREEMAN    PALMER 

As  A  Member  of  the  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumn.e  9 

RECORD   OF   A    MEETING 

Held  at  Boston,  December  29,  1902,  to  Plan  for  Me.morials  of  the 
Life  and  Work  of  Alice  Freeman  Palmer.  With  Addresses  by 

President  Charles  W.  Eliot  16 

Mr.  Samuel  B.  Capen  18 

Rt.  Rev.  William  Lawrence  20 

President  Caroline  Hazard  23 

President  Elmer  H.  Capen  26 

President  Mary  E.  Woolley  29 

Dean  Alice  H.  Luce  31 

Mrs.  Helen  H.  Backus  33 

President  William  H.  P.  Faunce  37 

President  William  J.  Tucker  39 


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A    MEMORIAL   SKETCH 


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ALICE   FREEMAN    PALMER 

A    MEMORIAL   SKETCH 

y4  LICE  Fkeeman  Pal.-meu,  the  eldest  of  the  four  chil- 

/%  dren  of  James  W.  and  Ehzabeth  Higley  Freeman, 
J  m.  was  born  in  Colesville,  a  small  town  near  A\'indsor, 
New  York,  February  21, 1855.  She  died  in  Paris,  December  0, 
1902. 

The  mother's  ancestors  came  to  the  State  of  New  York 
from  the  hill  countiy  of  western  Massachusetts  near  Stock- 
bridge,  and  her  father  was  a  descendant  of  the  original  Scotch 
owners  of  large  land  grants  in  the  beautiful  Susquehanna  Vul- 
ley.  Her  father  was  first  a  farmer,  as  were  his  fathers  before 
him,  but  after  his  marriage  he  was  enabled,  with  the  help  of  his 
young  wife  of  seventeen,  to  realize  his  youthful  ambition,  and 
ten  years  after  the  birth  of  their  first  child  he  obtained  the 
degree  of  M.D. 

Alice  E.  Freeman  came  into  an  excellent  inheritance  of 
body  and  brain.  The  example  of  her  parents  in  mental  appli- 
cation during  her  younger  years  early  inspired  a  passion  for 
study.  Of  this  time,  she  was  accustomed  to  say  at  a  later  period, 
"  I  grew  up  with  my  mother."  She  was  ten  years  of  age  when 
her  parents  left  the  farm  and  took  up  their  residence  in  Wind- 
sor. There  she  spent  seven  years  in  study  at  the  Academy, 
and  it  was  there  also  that  she  joined  the  Presbyterian  church. 
It  was  said  of  her  that  "she  was  an  eager,  ambitious  student, 
determined  by  the  very  forces  of  her  nature  towards  the  get- 
ting of  knowledge  and  the  building  up  of  a  symmetrical  char- 
acter." 

At  Windsor  Academy  she  was  prepared  for  college.  In 
those  days  the  requirements  for  women's  colleges  were  not  so 
rigorous  as  for  men's,  and  that  desire  which  was  to  be  hers  in 
all  her  educational  work  for  girls  later,  was  hers  then.  She 
wished  to  fit  herself  to  meet  the  world,  compelling  equality 

[  1  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

of  respect  as  regards  woman's  part  in  it.  Thus  the  compari- 
sons, on  the  part  of  her  classmates  at  Windsor,  of  the  varying 
standards  of  requirements,  spurred  her  to  choose  the  institu- 
tion where  she  could  be  assured  that  these  were  the  highest. 
Her  choice  was  Michigan  University,  which  only  a  few  years 
before  had  offered  to  women  equal  privileges  with  men. 

Entering  the  University  in  1872,  with  so  many  conditions 
that  it  was  a  grave  question  whether  she  should  be  admitted, 
she  had  by  the  beginning  of  her  Sophomore  year  removed 
them  all,  and  established  her  leadership  in  her  class.  She  was 
graduated  among  the  very  first  in  a  class  of  seventy-six,  twelve 
of  whom  were  women.  The  subject  of  her  Commencement 
oration  was  "The  Conflict  between  Science  and  Poetry. "  She 
was  not  only  scholarly,  she  was  a  leader  in  social  activities,  and 
in  those  pioneer  days  of  co-education,  inspired  respect  for  wo- 
man's capacity,  whether  as  a  member  in  the  College  debating 
club,  where,  even  then,  she  showed  rare  powers  of  persuasion, 
or  as  an  active  officer  of  the  Students'  Christian  Association. 

In  December,  1874,  there  were  floods  on  the  Susquehanna 
River.  A  letter  came  from  her  father  telling  of  his  reverses  and 
saying  that  she  must  return  home.  Her  reply  came  not  from 
the  University,  but  from  Ottawa,  Illinois,  where,  with  the 
prompt  help  of  professors,  she  had  found  an  opportunity  to 
teach  in  the  high  school.  There  she  taught  Latin  and  Greek 
from  January  to  June,  still  keeping  her  college  study  unin- 
terrupted as  a  member  of  the  Junior  class.  From  that  time 
she  was  self-supporting.  After  graduation  she  taught  in  Gen- 
eva, Wisconsin,  for  a  time,  in  a  private  school  for  girls.  From 
1877  to  1879  she  was  principal  of  the  high  school  at  East  Sagi- 
naw, Michigan. 

At  this  time  she  received  a  call  to  a  professorship  of  mathe- 
matics at  Wellesley  College ;  but  her  youngest  sister — the  idol 
of  the  family — was  making  a  brave  fight  for  life  against  con- 
sumption, and  she  would  not  consider  it.  In  the  death  of  this 
sister  at  eighteen,  her  deep  and  abounding  devotion  to  girls 

[2] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

had  its  veritable  consecration.  Tlien  in  1871)  slie  was  called 
to  a  professorship  of  history  at  Wellesley,  and  accepted  the 
position.  Two  years  later  she  became  Acting  President,  and 
in  1882,  when  she  was  twenty-six  years  of  age,  she  accepted 
the  presidency. 

AMdely  trained— trained  by  the  knowledge  and  enthu- 
siasm of  college  professors,  trained  by  work  as  a  teacher  in 
public  and  private  schools,  trained  by  the  devotions  and  sor- 
rows of  a  peculiarly  intimate  home  life  and  religious  life — 
she  brought  to  the  presidency  of  Wellesley  College  a  Avealth  of 
experience  that  made  her  tact  infinite,  her  executive  ability 
masterly,  and  her  intelligence  keen  and  clear.  To  all  this  was 
added  a  wonderful  capacity  not  only  to  remember  names  but 
to  individualize  students,  parents,  and  friends,  a  power  that 
must  be  counted  a  special  gift.  It  was  not  strange  that  she  was 
known  to  those  who  loved  her  most  as  "The  Princess,"  and 
that  her  work  in  the  College  for  six  years  during  the  time  of 
its  most  rapid  and  creative  development  should  forever  seem 
incomparably  well  done.  It  was  accomplished  witii  a  courage 
that  is  an  inspiration,  for  it  was  in  those  years  that,  because 
of  weak  lungs,  she  was  told  she  had  but  six  months  to  live, 
and  was  advised  to  spend  them  in  the  south  of  France. 

Her  marriage,  in  1887,  to  George  Herbert  Palmer,  Profes- 
sor of  Philosophy  at  Harvard  University,  took  her  from  the 
presidency  of  a  particular  institution  and  made  her  a  trustee 
of  many  institutions  and  a  leader  in  the  solution  of  many 
educational  problems.  It  was  the  beginning  for  her  of  a  still 
larger  service. 

In  1892  she  accepted  with  much  hesitation  the  position  of 
dean  of  the  graduate  schools  and  colleges  in  the  University 
of  Chicago,  to  be  in  residence  during  one-third  of  the  academic 
year.  The  office  had  just  been  created,  as  had  the  L^niversity, 
and  it  was  her  task  as  much  to  establish  the  social  conditions 
and  relations  of  the  students  within  the  University  as  to  plan 
their  courses  of  study.  The  initial  impulse  in  the  life  of  a 

[3] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

university  is  always  the  enduring  impulse,  and  so  it  was  as  a 
creator  of  traditions  that  she  worked  for  Chicago  University. 
In  1895,  she  resigned,  convinced  that  tlie  many  problems  inci- 
dent to  the  founding  of  this  great  university  needed  her  per- 
sonal help  less  than  other  work  that  called  her. 

During  these  years  her  generous  service  and  eager  desire 
for  larger  helpfulness  in  all  matters  of  education  were  widely 
recognized.  Honorary  degrees  were  conferred  upon  her  by 
several  colleges, — Ph.D.  by  Michigan  in  1882,L.H.D.  by  Co- 
lumbia in  1887,  and  in  1895  and  1896,  LL.D.  by  Wisconsin 
and  Union.  Her  work  was  varied,  but  her  purpose  was  clear. 
She  labored  earnestly  in  many  paths  to  increase  opportunities 
of  service  for  college  women,  and  in  every  field  to  choose  for 
advancement  those  with  capacity  for  leadership  and  scholar- 
ship, who  should  themselves  become  creators  of  new  and  larger 
opportunities  for  others.  In  her  public  addresses  she  showed 
always  an  eager  sincerity,  a  knowledge  of  her  subject,  and  a 
kindliness  in  expressing  conviction  that  disarmed  hostility 
and  won  others  to  share  her  enthusiasms.  President  of  the  ^Vo- 
nian's  Education  Association  of  Boston  from  1891  to  1901, 
twice  President,  and  finally  General  Secretary,  of  the  Asso- 
ciation of  Collegiate  Alumnfe,  one  of  the  chief  executive  of- 
ficers of  the  Association  for  Promoting  Scientific  Research  by 
Women,  President  of  the  International  Institute  for  Girls  in 
Spain,  member  of  the  jNIassachusetts  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion from  1889,  until,  in  1902,  she  became  by  a  third  appoint- 
ment the  senior  member,  also  identified  in  many  different 
capacities  with  organizations  of  influence,  she  e\'erywhere 
sought  to  win  support  in  all  wise  endea^'ors  for  better  educa- 
tion. Among  college  women  she  was  a  pioneer  and  leader ;  with 
and  for  all  women  she  was  a  confident  optimist  and  worker. 
Her  life-story,  when  written,  must  epitomize  the  victorious 
struggle  of  her  sex  for  larger  intellectual  freedom  in  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century.  Always  with  forward  look,  she  labored, 
— whether  as  one  of  those  most  responsible  for  the  children 

[4] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

of  Massachusetts,  or  for  the  organized  interests  of  the  women 
of  her  countr}-,  or  for  their  hig.her  education  here  or  abroad, 
— and  her  work  found  her  just  at  the  beginning  of  a  new  term 
with  greater  intiuence  as  well  as  greater  problems. 

Lavish  of  self  in  every  relation  for  good,  yet  forgetful  of 
self,  she  stood  in  all  her  inner  life  and  its  crises,  isolated,  and 
for  this  greatness  of  personal  reserve,  she  received  most  re- 
spect from  those  nearest. 

No  one  can  describe  her  personality.  Exceptionally  sensitive 
to  beauties  of  form  and  color,  intimately  at  home  with  living 
creatures,  she  was  yet  more  intimately  and  simply  at  home  in 
the  heart  of  a  child.  \\'ith  a  child,  she  was  boundlessly  in  love. 
For  the  children  of  larger  growth,  her  work  was  among  men  as 
well  as  among  women,  and  in  it  all  she  was  always  and  every- 
where capable  of  a  great  sincerity.  Hers  was  convincing  sym- 
pathy and  earnest  foresight,  which  made  her  judgment  so  true 
that  to  her  many  owe  not  merely  their  success,  but  the  right 
choosing  of  a  life-work.  Hers  was  the  capacity  to  give  to  others 
at  innumerable  moments,  courage  and  gladness.  Hers  was  a 
self-effacement  that  raised  fellow-workers  and  friends  to  the 
level  of  achievement  and  then  to  them  gave  the  credit  of  vie- 


[  5] 


ALICE   FREEMAN   PALMER 
AS  A  MEMBER  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  OF  COLLEGIATE  ALUMNA 


ALICE   FREEMAN   PALMER 

AS  A  MEMBER  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION  OF  COLLEGIATE  ALUMNiE 
BY    MARION    TALBOT 

ON  November  21, 1881,  a  conference  was  called  in  Boston 
to  consider  the  suggestion  that  in  the  young  but  rapidly 
gi'owing  body  of  women  college  graduates  of  the  country  lay 
great  power  for  the  promotion  of  the  educational  interests 
of  women.  To  this  conference  went  Alice  E.  Freeman,  then 
in  her  twenty-seventh  year,  turning  for  the  moment  from  the 
cares  of  the  presidency  of  Wellesley  College  and  from  respon- 
sibilities which  to  many  would  have  been  all-absorbing.  It 
was  characteristic  of  her  sagacity  and  far-sightedness  as  an  ad- 
ministrative officer  and  educator  that  she  should  feel  the  im- 
portance and  wide-reaching  possibilities  of  this  untried  move- 
ment. It  was  characteristic  of  her  faith,  her  courage,  and  her 
insight,  that  in  the  little  group  of  seventeen  women  from  eight 
different  colleges,  called  for  the  purpose  of  forming  an  asso- 
ciation of  women  college  graduates,  she  should  be  one  of  the 
leaders.  She  made  the  original  motion  which  led  to  the  organi- 
zation of  the  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumn£e,  on  January 
li,  1882,  and  this  act  well  epitomizes  her  relation  to  the  Asso- 
ciation for  the  twenty  years  that  followed.  In  all  the  measures 
taken  which  have  developed  this  little  group  into  an  organi- 
zation Avith  over  three  thousand  members  and  twenty-six 
branches,  scattered  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land, 
her  voice  was  heard  in  council;  her  leadership  was  positive, 
creative,  real.  She  not  only  held  from  time  to  time  its  chief 
executive  offices,  but  she  was  continuously  a  leading  member 
of  its  most  important  committees.  Tlie  story  of  her  influence 
can  here  be  told  but  in  brief 

When  the  constitution  of  the  Association  was  under  con- 
sideration, Mrs.  Palmer  m-ged  that  the  unanimous  vote  of  the 
Executive  Committee  be  alwavs  required  for  the  admitting  of 

[9  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

an  institution  to  membership.  From  that  day  on,  officially  and 
unofficially,  her  voice  was  continually  heard  in  behalf  of  high 
collegiate  standards  as  the  one  requisite  for  membership.  There 
are  many  who  remember  how  boldly  she  could  withstand  the 
demands  made  by  those  whose  emotional  zeal  was  too  undis- 
criminating  and  who  said,  "Take  all  the  colleges  into  your 
league ;  when  you  have  gathered  them  in,  you  will  so  encour- 
age them  that  the  preparatory  departments  will  be  cut  away, 
the  corps  of  instruction  will  be  strengthened,  the  funds  of  the 
institutions  will  be  increased  to  the  degree  necessary  to  main- 
tain the  true  college, — this,  that,  and  the  other  end  will  be 
achieved."  There  was  no  one  who  could  say  no,  more  gently 
and  yet  more  firmly  than  INIrs.  Palmer.  Soon  after  the  Asso- 
ciation was  formed  she  made  an  investigation  in  order  to  ascer- 
tain on  what  grounds  the  various  States  grant  charters  giving 
the  right  to  confer  degrees,  with  the  hope  that  the  legislatures 
would  aid  in  the  work  of  raising  standards  by  refusing  charters 
to  inferior  institutions.  It  was  found  that  no  assistance  could 
be  gained  from  that  source.  Her  interest  was  awakened  in  the 
subject,  and  in  later  years  it  was  due  largely  to  her  personal 
and  official  influence  that  the  Commonwealth  of  JNIassachu- 
setts  took  steps  to  protect  the  degree-conferring  power  by 
enacting  that  every  petition  to  the  legislature  for  a  charter  for 
an  educational  institution  should  thereafter  be  publicly  adver- 
tised and  reported  to  the  State  Board  of  Education. 

She  was  a  leader  in  the  effort  of  the  Association  to  fix  pub- 
lic attention  on  the  need  of  strengthening  existing  colleges 
and  of  discouraging  the  establishment  of  new  institutions  in- 
adequately endowed.  Her  addresses  and  reports  with  refer- 
ence to  collegiate  standards  and  methods  form  a  brilliant  con- 
tribution to  the  study  of  this  subject. 

An  important  matter  to  which  she  directed  the  attention 
of  the  Association  was  the  need  of  better  physical  education 
for  women  in  the  colleges.  The  first  publication  of  the  Asso- 
ciation was  on  this  subject;  of  the  four  parts,  the  section  ad- 

[10] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

dressed  to  parents  was  written  by  her.  It  shows  conclusively 
her  wide  knowledge  of  existing  conditions  and  her  keen  in- 
sight in  recognizing  dangers  which,  if  not  checked,  threatened 
every  interest  of  educated  women.  Her  practical  earnestness 
was  shown  in  the  distribution  of  literature  on  this  subject 
among  women  students,  and  friends  of  women's  colleges,  and 
in  later  years,  her  service  was  continued  as  the  Association 
considered  the  subject  in  various  modified  foi-ms. 

The  management  and  award  of  scholarship  funds,  the  value 
of  pedagogical  training,  and  the  methods  of  adapting  the  cer- 
tificate system  to  high  standards  of  scholarship  were  subjects 
whose  importance  she  continually  urged. 

Alice  Freeman  Palmer  brought  to  these  activities  insight 
and  enthusiasm.  The  work  which  most  claimed  her  interest 
was  that  of  securing  fellowships  for  women.  At  a  time  when 
many  still  questioned  the  practicability  of  collegiate  education 
for  women,  when  regular  courses  for  the  higher  degrees  were 
in  general  not  accessible  to  women,  and  few  fellowships  were 
open  to  them,  she  acted  on  a  suggestion  made  by  one  of  the 
members,  that  the  Association  should  undertake  the  establish- 
ment of  fellowships.  From  that  time,  with  ardor  tempered  by 
discrimination,  she  labored  to  open  to  women  new  approaches 
to  advanced  scholarship.  Her  successor  as  Chairman  of  the 
Fellowship  Committee  says,  "During  all  the  years  of  thework, 
in  the  midst  of  discouragement  and  trials,  she  was  fertile  in  re- 
source, quick  to  respond,  most  helpful  with  suggestions ;  while 
in  the  arousing  of  public  interest  and  in  the  securing  of  funds, 
she  rendered  mostvaluable  aid."Whenin  1896  she  finally  with- 
drew from  official  connection  with  the  Committee  on  Fellow- 
ships, it  was  to  promote  the  same  interest  through  the  Wo- 
man's Education  Association  of  Boston,  an  organization  in 
whose  exceptional  work  for  education  she  for  ten  years  took  an 
active  part  as  its  president.  She  eff'ected  in  this  way  a  union  of 
forces  which  has  brought  about  large  results,  and  she  planned 
a  far-reaching  work  which  both  associations  will  feel  it  their 

[  11  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

privilege  to  support  loyally  in  the  future. 

When  it  became  evident  that  the  Association  stood  in  need 
of  change  with  a  view  to  unifying  its  various  forces,  conserving 
its  effort,  and  extending  its  influence,  the  dissociation  turned 
again  to  Mrs.  Palmer.  She  accepted  the  new  office  of  General 
Secretary,  or  executive  officer  of  the  Association,  with  power 
to  direct  and  supervise  its  policy,  ^^^ith  characteristic  devotion, 
she  undertook  the  new  duty,  carrying  fresh  enthusiasm  to 
many  centres  of  work  among  its  members,  and  laying  aside 
its  responsibilities  only  on  her  departure  for  Europe. 

The  record  of  her  work  in  the  Association  brings  into  strong 
relief  a  trait  which  marks  her  as  one  of  the  great  of  her  time. 
She  was  preeminently  a  seer.  To  persons,  lier  gift  was  to  reveal 
undreamed-of  resources ;  to  every  organization  which  felt  her 
power  and  influence,  she  disclosed  visions  of  work  to  be  done 
and  good  to  be  WTOught.  Nor  had  these  visions  anything  quix- 
otic about  them.  Her  gracious  manner  and  instant  charm  were 
balanced  by  a  judgment  which  was  sound  and  convincing. 
Great  was  her  service,  greater  her  inspiration. 


[12  ] 


RECORD   OF  A   MEETING 

HELD   AT   BOSTON,   DECEMBER   29,    1902,   TO    PLAN    FOR 

MEMORIALS   OF   THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 

ALICE   FREEMAN   PALMER 


RECORD   OF   A   MEETING 

HELD   AT   BOSTON,    DECEMBER   2.0,    1902,   TO    PLAN   FOR 

MEMORIALS   OF   THE    LIFE   AND   WORK    OF 

ALICE    FREEMAN    PALMER 

The  Meeting  xvas  called  to  order  hi/  Mr.  Lexvis  Ke/niedi/ 
3Iorsc,  tcho  said: 

AS  a  Member  of  the  Committee  of  Invitation,  I  rise  to  call 
the  meeting  to  order.  I  am  sure  we  shall  take  pleasure  in 
asking  President  Eliot  of  Harvard  University  to  preside. 

Rcma7-ks  of  President  Eliot 

WE  have  come  here  to-day  to  confer  together  as  to  the 
most  appropriate  and  desirable  mode  of  commemorat- 
ing the  services  of  a  very  noble  woman.  We  are  not  thinking 
that  she  needs  anything  at  our  hands.  I  want  to  read  to  you 
some  lines  of  Richard  Watson  Gilder,  sent  by  him  for  this 
meeting. 

Wien  fell,  to-day,  the  word  that  she  had  gone. 

Not  this  my  thought:  Here  a  bright  journey  ends. 

Here  rests  a  soul  unresting;  here,  at  last. 

Here  ends  that  earnest  strength,  that  generous  life — ■ 

For  all  her  life  was  giving.  Rather  this 

I  said  (after  the  first  swift,  sorrowing  pang): 

Hence,  on  a  new  quest,  starts  an  eager  spirit — 

No  dread,  no  doubt,  unhesitating  forth 

With  asking  eves;  pure  as  the  bodiless  souls 

Whom  jioets  vision  near  the  central  throne 

Angelicallj-  ministrant  to  man; 

So  fares  she  forth  with  smiling,  God  ward  face; 

Nor  should  we  grieve,  but  give  eternal  thanks  — 

Save  that  we  mortal  are,  and  needs  must  mourn. 

December  6,  1902. 

I  think  those  beautiful  lines  express,  for  us  all,  the  spirit  in 
which  we  must  think  of  Alice  Freeman  Palmer.  But  we  feel 

[  15] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

a  strong  need  of  doing  something  for  ourselves.  We  all  loved 
her,  we  all  recognized  in  her  a  noble  woman,  devoted  to  the 
public  service.  AVe  wish  to  express  our  thought  of  her.  We 
Avant  to  devise  some  means  of  holding  up  this  life  to  the  ad- 
miration of  succeeding  generations.  It  was  devoted  to  educa- 
tion, the  education  of  the  young.  We  want  some  educating 
memorial  of  her  which  shall  say  to  coming  generations,  "Go, 
and  do  thou  likewise. '  AVe  wish  to  make  her  life  continue 
to  teach  the  noble  lesson  which  she  gave  while  she  walked 
among  us. 

How  to  effect  this  is  the  problem  that  we  have  come  here 
to  consider.  I  have  said  that  ^Irs.  Palmer's  life  was  devoted  to 
education.  It  was,  from  the  first  moment  of  her  graduation 
at  Michigan  University  when  she  was  twenty-one  years  of 
age.  She  had  already  taught  in  an  Illinois  school  during  half 
of  her  Junior  year.  She  immediately  entered  on  the  career  of 
a  teacher;  and  when  she  was  only  twenty-three  years  old,  she 
was  principal  of  a  high  school  in  IMichigan.  She  went  thence 
to  be  professor  of  history  in  AVellesley  College,  ardently  rec- 
ommended for  that  position  by  her  lifelong  friend.  President 
Angell.  She  was  in  her  twenty-seventh  year  when  she  was 
made  the  president  of  AA^ellesley  College.  There  she  labored 
during  the  most  difficult  period  in  the  development  of  that 
institution,  as  president,  as  friend  of  every  pupil,  as  teacher, 
also,  as  wise  adviser  of  the  governors  of  the  institution. 

She  served  the  College  for  five  years  and  made  a  deep  mark 
on  its  records.  Then  she  came  to  Cambridge  as  Professor 
Palmer  s  wife.  There  she  has  been  my  next-door  neighbor  for 
ten  years.  Almost  immediately  after  her  marriage  she  entered 
the  service  of  the  State.  A\^ithin  two  years  of  her  coining  to 
Cambridge,  she  became  a  member  of  the  State  Board  of  Edu- 
cation. In  that  Board  she  has  served  the  entire  community  of 
JNIassachusetts  with  rare  wisdom  and  perfect  generosity.  All 
through  Mrs.  Palmer's  career,  she  has  been  the  counsellor  of 
nuiltitudes  of  women,  young  and  old.  She  has  given  advice 

[  16] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

concerning  the  organization  and  the  condnct  of  many  schools, 
academies,  colleges.  She  has  given  to  thousands  of  young  wo- 
men with  whom  she  has  been  brought  in  contact  the  most 
intimate  ad\ice  concerning  the  conduct  of  their  lives.  Slic  has 
given  cordial  welcome  and  good  advice  to  administrators  of 
educational  institutions  seeking  competent  women  for  posts 
which  are  difficult  to  fill.  Throughout  her  career  she  has  been 
distinguished  by  an  extraordinarily  (juick,  generous,  liberal 
sympathy,  which  went  forth  spontaneously  to  the  person  with 
whom  she  was  talking.  She  seized  upon  that  person's  fi'ame  of 
mind,  saw  his  or  her  disposition,  and  knew  how  best  to  touch 
the  motives  of  his  or  her  being.  This  advisory  function  has  been 
one  of  the  most  fruitful  of  all  Mrs.  Palmer's  labors  in  recent 
years.  She  has  touched  American  education  at  every  point, 
— the  elementary  education,  the  secondary,  the  higher.  She 
was  called  to  Chicago  L^niversity  for  two  years,  from  1893  to 
1895,  as  the  dean  of  the  graduate  schools  and  colleges.  Every- 
where her  work  lifted  the  standard  of  education.  Everywhere, 
her  teaching,  her  example,  and  the  virtue  which  went  out  from 
her,  tended  to  make  people  better  and  happier. 

There  is  no  bitterness  or  strife,  no  doing  of  evil  that  good  may 
come,  in  this  life  that  we  hope  to  commemorate.  It  is  all  good, 
and  nothing  but  good.  Of  so  few  of  us  can  that  be  said. 

There  are  here  friends  of  JNIrs.  Palmer's  who  have  been 
cognizant  of  her  activities  in  many  relations  of  life.  We  need 
to  hear  from  these  friends.  We  need  to  have  some  picture 
given  us  of  the  fruition  of  this  remarkable  career.  Mr.  Samuel 
B.  Capen  is  the  president  of  the  American  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners for  Foi'eign  INIissions,  and  is  also  the  president  of  the 
International  Institute  for  Girls  in  Spain.  In  both  of  these  in- 
stitutions Mrs.  Palmer  had  official  station,  and  her  work  for 
them  is  known  to  Mr.  Capen.  I  ask  him  to  be  the  first  speaker 
at  this  meeting. 


[  17  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

Remarks  o/'Mu.  Cai>i:x 

MR.  Chairman:  Although  it  is  more  than  three  weeks 
since  the  sad  message  came  that  Alice  Freeman  Palmer 
was  dead,  I  am  sure  that  as  yet  it  is  all  vmreal  to  us.  It  does 
not  seem  possible  that  that  wonderful  personality,  so  full  of 
life,  force,  energy,  is  never  personally  to  touch  us  again  here. 
\Ye  knew  we  trusted  her,  but  how  great  that  dependence  was, 
we  are  beginning  to  realize  now.  We  knew  that  we  lov^ed  her; 
how  great  that  love  was,  we  did  not  know  until  she  had  passed 
from  our  sight. 

I  am  asked  to  speak  especially  of  her  relation  to  the  Ameri- 
can Board,  and  to  the  International  Institute  for  Girls  in  Spain. 
Mrs.  Palmer  was  one  of  the  corporate  members  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board  which  consists  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  members 
scattered  all  over  the  country,  of  whom  but  seven  are  women. 
This  fact  indicates  the  confidence  in  which  she  was  held ;  and 
her  interest  in  missions,  as  you  can  realize  from  her  character, 
was  of  the  most  practical  form.  I  have  often  quoted  a  remark 
of  hers,  that  the  weakness  of  the  Congregational  denomina- 
tion is  the  fact  that  it  neglects  to  teach  boys  and  girls  about 
missions. 

But  her  interest  in  this  direction  seemed  to  centre  in  the 
Institute  for  Girls  in  Spain.  For  several  years  she  was  the  pres- 
ident of  its  Board  of  Directors.  Although  she  felt  compelled 
to  resign  this  position,  she  still  remained  a  member  and  made 
its  interests  a  part  of  her  very  life.  She  gave  time  and  thought 
to  it  without  reserve.  It  seemed  to  be  the  passion  of  her  life  to 
establish  in  Madrid  another  Wellesley  which  should  do  for  the 
girls  in  Spain  what  our  girls'  colleges  have  done  for  America. 
She  said,  not  long  ago,  that  if  she  were  a  little  younger  and 
had  fewer  cares,  she  should  be  glad  to  go  to  Madrid  and  be 
connected  with  the  Institution.  What  I  have  said,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, shows  the  breadth  of  her  vision ;  that  the  field  for  her 
was  the  world,  and  was  as  broad  as  humanity. 

[  1«] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

We  are  here  to  confer  as  to  what  we  shall  do  for  some  me- 
morial which  we  wish  to  establisli.  It  seems  to  me  there  are 
three  reasons  at  least  why  such  a  memorial  is  most  fitting. 

At  forty-seven  years  of  age,  though  born  in  a  home  with 
many  limitations,  she  had  come  into  the  front  rank  of  Ameri- 
can women.  Courteous,  cultivated,  gentle,  she  was  firm  and 
decided.  With  intense  convictions  of  her  own,  she  was  most 
charitable  towards  the  opinions  of  others.  She  put  the  most 
important  things  first,  and  so  came  the  symmetrical  life  that 
we  have  seen  and  the  personality  which  has  been  so  great  a 
force. 

The  second  point  I  have  in  mind,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  one  to 
which  reference  has  already  been  made, — that  in  an  eminent 
degree  she  had  herself  learned,  and  taught  to  others,  the  Mas- 
ter's lesson  of  nineteen  centuries  ago,  that  gi-eatness  consists 
in  service.  She  counted  not  her  own  good,  her  own  pleasiu'e, 
her  own  life,  if  only  she  might  help  others.  At  a  meeting  not 
long  ago,  I  sat  by  her  side.  I  found  her  so  hoarse  that  she  could 
hardly  speak.  Yet  she  had  left  her  home  that  winter  night  to 
speak  for  the  cause  she  loved.  And  if  I  might  venture  another 
personal  reminiscence,  I  would  refer  to  a  long  letter  received 
from  her  some  time  ago,  concerning  a  matter  in  which  I  had 
asked  her  judgment,  and  about  which  Boston  was  stirred.  I 
said,  when  that  letter  came,  "Oh,  how  she  lavishes  herself  for 
others'  sake!"  I  think  it  is  President  Tucker  who  has  said,  "If 
one  is  to  do  anything  in  this  world  that  is  worth  the  doing, 
that  person  must  be  very  lavish  of  himself."  INIeasured  by  that 
test,  I  am  sure  Alice  Freeman  Palmer  was  chief  among  us. 

And  finally,  we  should  have  this  memorial  because  she  has 
taught  the  power  of  personal  inspiration.  The  mightiest  force 
in  this  world,  we  all  recognize,  is  a  living  person  in  touch  with 
others.  The  printed  page  has  its  value.  But  when  the  truth  on 
that  page  is  in  the  heart  and  the  brain  of  another,  and  then  with 
earnestness  and  intensity  is  sent  home, — then  it  lives.  Was 
not  that  the  secret  of  Mrs.  Palmer's  power,  that  she  could  fire 

[  19  1 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

others  with  something  of  her  own  enthusiasm  and  convictions  ? 
Think  of  the  work  she  did  at  W^ellesley  with  those  girls  in 
leading  them  to  unselfish  service !  Think  of  the  way  in  which 
she  lives  again  to-day  in  homes  everywhere,  in  school-rooms 
everywhere,  because  she  has  taught  so  many,  through  the  in- 
spiration of  her  own  life,  to  do  the  noblest  and  to  live  the  best. 

And  therefore,  Mr.  Chairman,  we  must,  I  am  sure,  have 
this  memorial.  As  to  its  form,  this  is  perhaps  not  the  place  to 
discuss  it.  It  seems  to  me,  sir,  if  I  may  be  allowed  a  sugges- 
tion, that  the  form  through  which  our  love  shall  find  expres- 
sion, if  I  may  put  it  in  that  way,  might  well  be  referred  to 
a  committee  of  three.  President  Eliot,  Governor  Crane,  and 
Mrs.  Quincy  A.  Shaw,  in  whose  judgment  all  our  citizens  will 
have  full  confidence. 

They  said  Mrs.  Palmer  was  dead.  No,  she  is  living  here  to- 
day in  all  our  lives,  and  in  thousands  of  lives  all  over  this  land 
and  across  the  sea.  But  let  us  have  a  memorial  to  let  others, 
who  ai'e  to  come  after  us,  know  the  power  and  the  gx'eatness 
of  this  life. 


President  Eliot:  An  institution  through  which  ]\Irs.  Palmer 
expressed  much  of  herself,  her  will,  her  personal  force,  her  in- 
tellectual influence,  was  Wellesley  College.  I  shall  next  ask 
the  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  Bishop  Lawrence,  to 
speak  to  the  meeting. 

Remarks  o/"  Bishop  Lawrence 

A  COL  LEGE  president  at  twenty-six  years  of  age!  If  one 
of  us  recalls  a  niece  or  a  daughter  twenty-six  years  old 
and  then  thinks  of  her  as  a  college  president,  one  catches  a 
suggestion  of  what  the  college  presidency  of  Miss  Freeman 
meant  to  the  community.  The  community,  however,  had  not 
begun  to  realize  what  the  president  of  a  women's  college  was 
or  could  be, — and  she  a  woman.  The  country  had  seen  noble 

[  20  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

women  as  school-teachei-s,  but  it  had  never  seen  a  college  wo- 
man as  a  president.  This  young  woman  entered  into  the  office. 
And  the  attitude  of  the  comnnmity  was  something  such  as  we 
can  hardly  conceive  or  even  now  recall.  Everywhere  the  idea 
of  a  college  education  for  women  met  lethargy,  injustice,  and 
even  hostility, — at  best,  the  sympathy  of  comparatively  few. 
So  that  she  gave  herself  to  a  career  entirely  strange  to  New 
England  and  the  country. 

Moreover,  there  were  conditions  in  the  College  that  made 
her  situation  very  difficult.  The  munificent  founder  had  had  a 
great  conception;  but  Miss  Freeman  found  in  the  College  cer- 
tain conditions  and  traditions,  academic  and  religious,  which 
in  time  no  doubt  the  founder  himself  would  have  set  aside. 
It  became  her  duty,  a  stranger,  to  enter  into  an  administration 
in  which  many  of  those  traditions  and  limitations  were  to  be 
modified  or  remo\ed.  She  accepted  this  duty  and  became  its 
President  at  a  time  when  the  public  looked  on  the  College  as 
an  academy  for  girls,  so  far  as  tiie  public  knew  anything  about 
it.  Her  first  work  was  the  organization  of  the  Faculty.  We 
must  not  forget  the  difficulties  of  that  task.  So  recently  had 
the  higher  education  been  made  accessible  to  women,  that  at 
that  time  it  was  almost  impossible  to  obtain  women  teachers 
who  were  competent  to  be  real  professors. 

When  Miss  Freeman  took  the  presidency  of  Wellesley  Col- 
lege there  were  four  hundred  and  fifty  students ;  when  she  left 
the  College  there  were  six  hundred.  Yet  that  tells  only  half 
the  story.  During  her  administration,  the  standards  had  been 
so  far  raised  and  the  country  had  so  little  appreciated  this  ad- 
vance, that  young  women  flocked  to  Wellesley  only  to  reach 
the  gates  and  be  tiunied  back  for  insufficiency  of  preparation, 
a  condition  which  she  used  to  call  the  "massaci'e  of  the  in- 
nocents." 

So  I  say  this  young  woman  held  and  filled  her  position  as 
President  of  ^Vellesley  College;  and  as  she  passed  out  of  the 
gates,  there  went  with  her  the  devotion,  the  affection,  the  en- 

[21  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

thusiasm,  and  the  reverence,  of  the  graduates,  of  the  Faculty, 
and  of  the  community.  Keen  in  her  sense  of  justice,  thoughtful, 
considerate  and  sympathetic,  she  had  the  qualities  that  gained 
the  love  of  all  girls;  strong  as  an  administrator,  she  had  the 
power  that  won  confidence  and  respect  among  educators. 

After  her  i-esignation  in  1887,  INIrs.  Palmer  became  a  trus- 
tee of  Wellesley  College.  The  same  force  of  character  which 
she  had  showTi  as  President,  she  brought  to  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees. She  had  made  radical  changes  in  the  traditions,  the  meth- 
ods of  control,  and  the  conditions,  of  the  College,  and  when  she 
entered  the  Board  of  Trustees,  there  was  a  change.  She  became 
the  means  of  putting  the  Board  on  a  much  surer  footing,  so  that 
it  gained  more  and  more  in  the  confidence  of  the  community, 
and  to-day  those  who  entrust  to  Wellesley  College  large  gifts 
are  assured  they  will  be  administered  as  the  donors  desire. 

Alice  Freeman  Palmer,  from  within  the  College  as  Presi- 
dent, from  within  the  administration  of  the  College  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  gave  of  the  best  of  her  life  to 
Wellesley.  And  however  much  she  may  be  beloved,  however 
far  her  influence  may  reach  or  her  loss  be  felt,  the  one  word 
that  can  be  spoken  of  her  is  that  she  was  above  all  the  Presi- 
dent of  Wellesley  College. 

President  Eliot:  As  Bishop  Lawrence  has  said,  Mrs. 
Palmer's  interest  in  Wellesley  College  did  not  terminate 
w  ith  the  end  of  her  career  as  its  president.  She  was  a  trustee 
from  that  time  on,  and  always  intensely  interested  in  its  af- 
fairs, always  delighting  to  serve  the  College  in  any  way  in  her 
power.  INIay  I  ask  President  Hazard,  of  Wellesley  College,  to 
tell  this  meeting  something  of  the  subsequent  services  of  Mrs. 
Palmer  to  that  institution? 


[22  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

-/ 
Remarks  o/' President  Hazard 

MR.  President:  Bishop  Lawrence  has  just  referred  to 
Mrs.  Pahners  speaking  of  the  "massacre  of  the  inno- 
cents." It  seems  to  me  that  one  of  her  characteristics  was  that 
she  never  forgot  one  of  her  own  experiences,  but  made  each 
a  universal  experience.  She  reasoned  from  herself  to  all  around 
her,  to  all  her  friends,  and  so  made  her  own  life  of  value  to 
others  in  untold  ways.  Only  a  few  days  ago  President  Angell 
was  at  Wellesley  and  told  me  of  her  beginning  at  the  L^niver- 
sity  of  Michigan.  It  so  happened  that  the  Dean  was  away  in 
the  year  1872  when  Miss  Freeman  presented  herself  for  exam- 
ination and  President  Angell  himself  was  admitting  the  fresh- 
men that  year.  She  had  not  been  well  prepared  at  Windsor,  in 
the  small  country  academy ;  her  examinations  did  not  reach 
the  standard.  But  he  saw  the  eager,  bright  spirit  and  the  keen 
mind  in  that  shy  girl,  and  he  told  his  Faculty  that  he  should 
like  to  be  responsible  for  her  for  six  weeks  if  they  would  ad- 
mit her  on  his  personal  recommendation.  They  did  so.  In  six 
weeks  she  had  proved  that  she  could  work  off  her  conditions, 
which  she  did  entirely  in  the  first  year.  She  was  graduated 
among  the  very  first  in  her  class.  I  think  that  early  experience 
of  Mrs.  Palmer  gave  her  a  very  tender  feeling  for  massacred 
"innocents."  This,  perhaps,  was  the  beginning  of  that  intense 
sympathy  with  college  girls  and  their  difficulties  which  con- 
tinued throughout  her  life.  She  was  a  member  of  the  Stu- 
dents' Aid  Society  at  Wellesley  to  the  time  of  her  death.  I 
shall  never  forget  the  care  with  which  she  inquired  into  the 
circumstances  of  each  individual  student,  ^^^hen  a  long  list  of 
names  was  being  considered,  she  would  know  of  some  associ- 
ation with  this  one,  that  that  one  had  prepared  at  such  a 
school ;  she  had  heard  of  another's  parents  and  knew  where 
they  lived,  and  help  must  be  given  there.  Her  personal  knowl- 
edge of  the  girls  that  came  to  college  was  something  wonderful. 
In  the  government  of  the  College,  of  which  President  Eliot 

[23  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

has  asked  me  to  speak,  she  was  a  potent  factor.  Her  connec- 
tion with  the  State  Board  of  Education  and  her  wide  knowl- 
edge of  the  affairs  of  other  colleges,  made  her  an  authority.  On 
all  questions  of  a  technical  nature  she  was  always  appealed  to; 
we  all  turned  instantly  to  Mrs.  Palmer.  She  would  know  what 
was  the  precedent,  what  was  the  usual  practice  in  any  case  of 
difficulty.  As  Bishop  Lawrence  has  said,  she  constantly  sought 
to  raise  the  standard  of  efficiency  in  administration,  and  she 
was  able  to  do  this  not  only  through  her  loyal  enthusiasm,  but 
also  through  her  capability  for  action. 

We  are  here  to-day,  a  group  of  fiiends;  and  to  fi'iends  I 
should  like  to  tell  a  little  personal  history  which  was  to  me 
very  touching.  I  discovered  it  only  a  short  time  ago. 

We  had  promised  to  raise  a  certain  amount  of  money  in 
order  to  cancel  the  debt  of  the  College  before  the  end  of  my 
first  year  at  Wellesley.  This  pledge  was  to  be  fulfilled  by  Com- 
mencement Day  in  June,  1900.  At  the  last  meeting  of  the 
Trustees  there  was  still  a  considerable  sum  to  raise.  It  was  then 
beyond  the  middle  of  June.  Between  ten  and  twelve  thousand 
dollars  was  lacking,  and  there  was  not  very  much  prospect  of 
its  coming.  It  would  have  been  a  \"ery  great  misfortune  for  the 
College  to  go  on  another  year  laboring  under  the  debt.  It  had 
been  definitely  said  that  the  debt  should  be  paid  in  that  year, 
and  I  think  Mrs.  Palmer  felt  this  necessity  more  keenly  than  I. 
We  came  out  of  the  meeting  together  and  parted  at  the  foot 
of  Park  Street,  she  to  go  to  Cambridge,  and  I  turning  this  way. 
Her  last  words  were  words  of  encouragement,  that  I  must 
not  be  troubled,  that  something  would  be  done.  The  very  next 
morning  came  a  brief  note  saying,  "Do  not  be  troubled.  It  is 
sure  to  go  through,  and  will  go  through  at  Commencement 
Day.  You  need  not  speak  of  it,  but  this  is  for  your  own  private 
encouragement."  That  lifted  a  great  burden,  though  I  did  not 
know  what  she  had  done.  She  had  many  friends  to  whom  she 
could  appeal.  I  supposed  she  had  found  some  one  who  would 
make  good  the  amount.  After  many  months  I  learned  that 

[  24  ] 


ALICE  FKEEiMAN  PALMER 

she,  with  Professor  Pahiier  s  approval,  had  herself  taken  their 
savings-bank  books  and  deposited  them  with  the  Treasm'er  of 
the  College,  saying  that  that  sum  was  to  be  made  good;  the 
debt  must  be  paid.  She  would  give  what  was  necessary.  It  was 
the  savings  of  a  lifetime  she  thus  pledged.  I  am  happy  to  say 
this  large  sum  was  not  called  for ;  the  friends  of  the  college 
responded,  and  the  amount  which  she  finally  contributed  was  a 
comparatively  small  one.  But  she  was  willing  to  give  the  whole 
of  her  savings  that  ^^"ellesley's  debt  might  be  paid. 

Only  a  few  weeks  ago  she  wrote  of  Wellesley,  "that  beauti- 
ful place,  that  blessed  place."  Wellesley,  I  think,  would  be 
found  written  in  her  heart.  It  \vas  the  place  she  was  de\'oted 
to,  the  place  she  had  given  her  life  for,  the  place  whose  motto 
she  exemplified  in  her  own  life,  "Not  to  be  ministered  unto 
but  to  minister." 


President  Eliot:  Many  letters  have  been  received  by  the 
very  small  committee  which  asked  you  to  come  together ;  and 
I  will  ask  Mr.  Morse  to  read  two,  the  first  from  the  Rev.  Dr. 
INIunger,  the  second  from  Governor  Crane. 

Ne)t>  Haven,  December  22,  1902 

MY  DEAR  Mrs.  Eeiot:  I  regret  it  is  impossible  for  me  to 
attend  the  meeting  of  friends  of  JNIrs.  Alice  Freeman 
Palmer,  held  to  plan  some  memorial  of  her  life  and  work.  I 
heartily  sympathize  with  the  object  in  view.  For  her  wise  ad- 
ministration of  AVellesley  during  a  critical  period  of  its  his- 
tory, and  her  great  influence  in  inspiring  the  best  ideals  of 
American  womanhood,  she  deserves  to  be  commemorated  in 
some  lasting  form.  The  love  of  those  who  knew  her  and 
cherish  her  memory  will  make  it  an  easy  task. 

Respectfully  yours, 

Theodore  T.  Munger 

Mrs.  Charles  W.  Eliot 

n  Quinri/  Street,  Camhridge 

[  25  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts 
Exemtive  Depaiiment 

Boston,  December  24,  1902 

MY  DEAR  Sir:  I  regret  extremely  that  absence  from  the 
city  will  prevent  my  being  present  at  the  meeting  to 
be  held  to  plan  a  memorial  of  the  life  and  work  of  JNIrs.  Alice 
Freeman  Palmer.  I  beg  to  be  permitted  to  say  here,  what  1 
should  be  glad  to  say  were  I  able  to  be  present  at  the  meet- 
ing, that  the  Commonwealth  appreciates  not  only  the  four- 
teen years  of  faithful  and  efficient  service  which  she  rendered 
as  a  member  of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  but  also  her 
great  devotion  to  educational  work  during  more  than  half 
her  life.  Surely,  a  life  so  full  of  generous  service  to  others  de- 
serves appropriate  recognition.  I  am 

Very  truly  yours, 

W.  Murray  Crane 

Mr.  Lewis  Kennedy  Morse 
4  Liberty  Square,  Boston 

President  Eliot:  Governor  Crane's  letter  brings  very 
clearly  to  mind  the  service  which  Mrs.  Palmer  rendered  to 
the  Commonwealth.  President  Capen,  of  Tufts  College,  has 
long  been  a  member  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  and 
has  known  intimately  the  nature  of  Mrs.  Palmer's  service  to 
the  State.  I  ask  him  to  tell  this  meeting  something  of  it. 

Remarks  of  President  Capen 

WHEN  INIrs.  Palmer  became  a  member  of  the  State 
Board  of  Education,  she  had  already  achieved  a  fame 
which  I  suppose  we  may  call  world-wide.  Yet  I  suspect  there 
was  a  doubt  in  the  minds  of  some  of  her  associates  whether, 
with  all  her  wonderful  brilliancy  and  her  great  achievements 
in  education,  she  would  grasp  the  situation  presented  to  the 
members  of  the  Board ;  whether  she  would  be  able  to  put  her- 

[26] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

self  at  once  in  close  and  sympathetic  touch  with  popular  edu- 
cation as  we  have  it  in  Massachusetts.  But  there  never  was  a 
moment  from  the  beginnin<T  of  her  service  to  the  end  when 
she  showed  the  slightest  lack  of  knowledge  or  of  appreciation 
of  the  duties  of  her  position.  During  her  fourteen  years  of  ser- 
vice, a  great  many  important  questions  have  been  under  con- 
sideration and  have  really  been  decided  by  the  Board.  In  all 
these  she  has  performed  a  very  important  part. 

One  thing  of  importance  has  recently  been  accomplished, 
namely,  the  placing  of  the  high  schools  under  the  normal 
schools,  so  that  pupils  who  come  to  the  normal  schools  must 
have  had  a  high  school  education  or  its  equivalent.  This  move- 
ment received  her  most  earnest  sympathy  and  effort.  I  am 
sure  that  all  the  members  of  the  Board  will  agree  with  me 
that  she  had  great  influence  in  bringing  about  this  result. 

I  think,  too,  of  her  great  interest  in  the  movement  for  the 
establishment  of  new  normal  schools.  I  remember  when  the 
hearings  were  held  in  the  State  House, — first,  a  preliminary 
hearing  where  the  public  was  invited  to  come  and  say  what  it 
thought  about  the  establishment  of  additional  normal  schools, 
and  then,  the  hearings  before  the  Committee  on  Education, 
— how  earnestly  she  labored  to  convey  the  impression  that 
while  we  might  have  additional  normal  schools  and  they  might 
meet  a  very  great  want,  what  we  needed  most  of  all  was  a 
better  equipment  for  the  schools  that  already  existed  and  for 
the  new  ones  that  might  be  created.  I  feel  sure  that  the  ear- 
nestness of  her  persuasive  utterances  in  the  committee  room 
had  a  great  deal  to  do  not  only  with  the  creation  of  these  new 
schools  but  with  the  provision  which  was  made  for  their  equip- 
ment and  the  generous  spirit  with  which  they  have  been  sup- 
ported ever  since  by  successive  legislatures. 

We  must  not  forget  her  profound  and  eager  interest  in  the 
teachers  of  the  public  schools.  As  a  teacher  herself,  she  was 
drawn  to  them  by  a  strong  and  tender  sympathy.  She  was  in- 
terested in  the  teachers  of  every  grade.  She  never  let  the  wel- 

[27  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALIMER 

fare  of  the  high  schools  pass  out  of  her  thoughts.  But  her  heart 
went  out  most  keenly  to  the  humbler  teachers  of  the  small 
and  obscure  schools,  remote  from  the  uplifting  associations 
and  influences  of  great  centres  of  population  and  organized  so- 
cial life.  Her  chief  care  was  that  they  should  be  well  prepared 
for  their  work,  since  so  much  depended  on  them,  in  giving  in- 
spiration to  their  pupils  and  in  setting  noble  ideals  before  the 
community  in  which  their  lot  was  cast.  Above  all  she  desired 
that  they  should  have  a  compensation  commensurate,  not  only 
with  the  value  of  their  services,  but  with  the  dignity  of  their 
calling.  For  the  attainment  of  this  object  she  steadfastly  and 
unremittingly  wrought. 

Another  significant  quality  of  her  mind  was  her  courage. 
Whenever  a  question  came  up  which  needed  the  voice  and 
expi'ession  of  the  Board  of  Education,  she  took  every  pains 
to  master  it.  And  when  she  had  once  made  up  her  mind,  no 
matter  what  might  be  the  popular  opinion,  —  sometimes  ap- 
parently at  the  risk  of  personal  reputation  or  even  of  miscon- 
ception of  her  attitude  by  the  public, — she  threw  herself  with 
all  her  might  into  the  accomplishment  of  the  end  desired,  never 
wavered,  never  turned  back,  and  never  seemed  to  think  of  her- 
self. For  that  reason,  she  was  most  acceptable  as  an  advocate 
before  legislative  committees.  On  this  account  she  was  perhaps 
the  most  influential  of  all  our  members  in  the  advocacy  of 
policies  which  had  to  be  adopted,  or  which  were  thought  to 
be  desirable,  in  the  legislature. 

In  this  way,  Mr.  President,  she  has  built  herself  into  the 
educational  institutions  of  the  Commonwealth.  She  needs  no 
memorial,  as  you  have  most  appropriately  said.  She  has  her 
monument.  It  is  here  in  Massachusetts.  It  is  a  part  of  this 
Commonwealth,  of  the  glory  which  we  all  share  and  which 
our  children  are  to  receive  as  an  inheritance.  But  for  the  satis- 
faction of  her  friends,  for  the  relief  in  part  of  our  own  sadness 
because  of  her  early  and  apparently  untimely  departure, — that 
we  may  show  our  gratitude  for  a  life  that  was  so  full,  so  rich, 

[  28  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

continually  giving,  putting  itself  as  a  stamp  and  seal  on  the 
life  of  the  Commonwealth, — as  a  measure  of  our  thankfulness 
for  wiiat  slie  was  and  what  she  accoiu))lislied,  we  ought  to  do 
something.  This  was  the  thought  that  arose  in  my  mind  as 
soon  as  I  was  able  to  orient  myself  after  the  sad  tidings  which 
came  to  us  like  a  blow  from  an  unseen  hand,  —  what  shall  we 
do  to  build  a  monument  to  this  life,  how  can  we  show  our 
gratitude  for  what  she  has  done? 

President  Eeiot:  A  word  of  President  Capen's  brought  to 
my  mind  one  of  the  most  fascinating  attributes  of  INIrs.  Palmer, 
namely,  her  courage.  She  was  one  of  the  bravest  persons  I 
ever  saw,  man  or  woman.  Courage  is  a  pleasing  attribute  in 
a  tough,  powerful,  healthy  man;  but  it  is  perfectly  delightful 
in  a  delicate  and  tender  woman. 

Mrs.  Palmer  had  a  universal  sympathy  with  and  interest 
in  every  institution  which  promised  to  build  up  the  educa- 
tion of  women.  She  went  wherever  she  was  asked  to  speak 
in  any  such  cause.  The  institutions  of  Massachusetts  were  of 
course  especially  dear  to  her.  I  ask  President  Woolley,  of  Mt. 
Holyoke,  to  say  a  few  words  about  Mrs.  Palmer's  influence 
as  an  educator. 

Remarks  of  President  Wooli>ey 

MR.  Chairman:  It  has  been  well  said  this  afternoon 
that  IVIrs.  Palmer  made  those  with  whom  she  came  in 
contact  better  and  happier;  and,  again,  that  she  had  learned 
the  lesson  of  putting  first  things  first.  I  shall  not  bring  to  you 
at  this  time  any  new  conception  of  her  life  and  work,  but 
rather  the  gathering  of  all  our  thoughts,  as  they  have  already 
been  expressed  many  times,  of  Alice  Freeman  Palmer  as  an 
educator. 

First,  she  emphasized  the  value  of  scholarship,  —  scholarship 
which  should  be  thorough,  broad,  far-reaching,  exact.  She  be- 

[29  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

lieved  that  women  have  the  power  to  attain  such  scholarship ; 
and  her  faith  and  confidence  in  that  power  did  much  to  de- 
velop it  in  the  students  with  whom  she  came  in  contact. 

She  believed  that  the  higher  education  of  women  is  in- 
tended to  send  them  out  into  the  world  not  only  as  scholars, 
but  also,  and  even  more  truly,  as  women.  She  was  a  womanly 
Avoman.  And  perhaps  that  means  more,  as  we  realize  that  in 
the  beginning  of  the  movement  for  the  higher  education  of 
women  it  was  natural  that  the  pendulum  should  swing  a  little 
away  from  that  conception,  and  that  in  the  strife  for  the  thing 
which  women  had  not  possessed,  they  should  lose  sight  of  that 
which  was  their  invaluable  possession  for  all  time.  A  womanly 
woman  as  well  as  a  scholarly  woman  was  INlrs.  Palmer's  ideal. 

And,  thirdly,  she  had  learned  to  put  first  things  first.  I 
think  it  is  very  significant  that  in  a  meeting  like  this,  empha- 
sis should  be  laid  on  her  part,  not  only  in  collegiate  and  aca- 
demic work,  in  the  common  schools,  the  secondary  schools, 
but  also  in  the  religious  organizations  and  the  missionary  ef- 
forts of  her  own  time. 

A  scholarly  M^oman,  a  womanly  woman,  and  a  Christian 
woman:  it  means  very  much  to  commemorate  any  one  who 
stands  for  this  trinity.  We  realize  to-day  that  this  is  the  ideal 
for  which  we  must  strive  in  the  higher  education  of  women. 
But  I  doubt  whether  we  realize  how  much  a  woman  like  Mrs. 
Palmer  has  done  toward  making  it  a  reality.  Some  one  has 
said,  "Set  the  noblest  free."  Is  not  that,  after  all,  the  aim  of 
education,  to  set  the  noblest  free?  In  talking  about  this  me- 
morial, my  own  feeling  has  been,  that  influence  is  stronger 
than  any  memorial  which  can  be  planned  by  hand  or  thought 
of  man.  Equally  true  is  it  that  that  life  which  stands  for  the 
noblest  and  the  best  and  the  highest  cannot  be  commemorated 
too  frequently.  It  cannot  be  brought  too  strongly  before  the 
minds  of  the  boys  and  the  girls  and  the  young  men  and  the 
young  women  of  the  time  which  is  to  come.  I  believe  in  me- 
morials. The  people  of  one's  own  generation  feel  the  personal 

[30  J 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

influence.  But  the  time  is  coming  when  the  name  alone  may 
not  mean  so  much;  and  those  who  stand  for  the  best  things 
in  education  and  in  Christian  hving  should  stand  for  the  best 
things  in  the  days  that  are  to  come,  as  in  the  days  that  now  are. 

President  Eliot:  An  institution  is  represented  here  with 
which  Mrs.  Palmer  felt  the  most  profound  sympathy  as  a  pio- 
neer in  the  work  of  educating  women.  Dean  Luce,  of  Ober- 
lin  College,  was  a  student  at  Wellesley  in  its  early  years.  Will 
she  say  a  few  words  to  this  meeting  about  President  Free- 
man's relation  to  the  students  and  Faculty? 

Remarks  of  Dean  Luce 

MR.  Chairman:  I  am  asked  to  tell  what  ]\Irs.  Palmer 
meant  to  us  who  were  students  in  Wellesley  College 
during  the  time  that  she  was  teacher  and  president  there.  I  am 
sure  it  would  be  impossible  for  any  Wellesley  alumna  to  put 
into  words  all  that  this  wise  and  gracious  and  beautiful  woman 
has  meant  to  us  in  the  years  that  are  past.  Whether  we  think 
of  her  as  the  young  and  enthusiastic  professor  who  made  her 
class-room  our  inspiration,  or  as  the  brilliant  and  delightful 
young  president,  of  whom  we  were  all  so  proud  and  under 
whose  administration  the  College  was  entei-ing  on  that  future 
which  has  since  become  her  past  and  is  now  her  present; 
whether,  as  members  of  the  Wellesley  Faculty,  we  thmk  of 
her  as  the  one  member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  to  whom  we 
felt  we  had  a  right  to  go,  because  we  had  been  her  old  stu- 
dents and  she  knew  us  and  was  interested  in  us,  or  as  that 
trustee  whose  counsel,  brought  as  it  was  from  so  wide  a  range 
of  experience,  any  institution  might  covet, — in  whichever  of 
these  aspects  we  think  of  her,  she  is  for  every  Wellesley  stu- 
dent the  one  woman  whose  life  seems  to  set  a  standard  for 
women  and  whose  influence  one  would  most  like  to  reflect  in 
one's  own  personal  life. 

[31  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

As  the  years  have  gone  on,  these  various  aspects  of  her  hfe, 
to  which  such  beautiful  tribute  has  here  been  paid  by  those 
who  were  associated  with  her  in  various  relations,  have  sunk 
into  insignificance  beside  two  which  have  seemed  to  me  to 
stand  out  more  and  more  as  those  qualities  which  separated 
Mrs.  Palmer,  in  a  way,  from  every  other  woman  it  has  ever 
been  my  privilege  to  know.  And  one  was,  her  power  of  living 
continually  under  the  spell  of  great  ideals.  When  life  pressed 
upon  us,  when  courage  failed,  when  the  way  looked  very  dark, 
an  hour  with  Mrs.  Palmer  would  send  us  out  refreshed  and  in- 
spired and  encouraged  for  the  dull,  gray  days  that  were  ahead. 
She  has  seemed  to  me  in  these  last  years  to  be  a  sort  of  apostle, 
continually  firing  the  world  for  a  crusade. 

And,  united  with  that,  was  a  gift  which  is  very  rare,  it  seems 
to  me,  in  combination  with  this  power  of  ideality,^ — her  saving 
common  sense.  INIany  of  you  have  sat  through  rather  dreary 
meetings,  when  the  discussion  had  wandered  very  much  from 
the  subject,  and  have  felt  the  thrill  of  enthusiasm  and  the  new 
life  which  came  into  the  meeting  when  IVIrs.  Palmer  rose  and 
brought  the  discussion  back  to  the  point,  and  with  this  saving 
common  sense,  solved  the  problem  from  the  practical  side. 

These  are  the  two  qualities  which  have  seemed  to  those  of 
us  no  longer  in  direct  relation  with  her,  most  to  be  prized,  as 
we  have  turned  to  her  in  the  stress  of  life,  for  counsel,  for 
help,  and  for  inspiration. 

And  under  it  all,  through  it  all.  and  over  it  all,  has  been 
the  great  kindness  of  her  heart.  There  could  never  come  a 
cry  from  Wellesley,  there  could  never  come  a  cry  from  any 
suffering  soul,  that  did  not  meet,  in  her,  instant  response. 

Of  her,  as  of  few  others,  are  the  woi'ds  true: 

"She  doeth  little  kindnesses 
Which  most  leave  undone,  or  despise; 
But  naught  that  sets  one  heart  at  ease 
Or  giveth  happiness  or  peace 
Is  Icfw  esteemed  in  her  eyes." 

[  32] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

As  we  look  across  the  years  when  we  shall  miss  this  wise 
and  generous  woman,  the  years  which  will  seem  so  much  lone- 
lier because  of  this  presence  which  has  gone  from  us,  she  will 
stand  to  us  increasingly  as  a  woman  who,  in  the  truest  sense 
of  the  word,  did  "Give  earth  herself  and  go  up  for  gain  above." 

Pkesident  Eliot:  What  Dean  Luce  has  just  said  empha- 
sizes certainly  two  of  Mrs.  Palmer's  most  influential  and  most 
delightful  qualities.  She  assuredly  was  an  idealist,  and  she  was 
an  optimist.  And  those  two  descriptions  of  her  depend  on  two 
of  her  great  qualities,  her  gi'eat  courage  and  her  indomitable 
hopefulness.  She  was  always  hopeful  of  the  individual,  hope- 
ful of  the  institution,  hopeful  for  society.  She  believed  thor- 
oughly in  the  power  of  organization ;  in  the  getting  together 
of  people  of  the  same  mind  and  the  same  purpose,  and  in  their 
working  together  to  accomplish  good  ends.  She  was  twice  the 
president  of  the  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnte  and  at  the 
time  of  her  death  held  its  most  responsible  office  as  General 
Secretary.  She  heartily  beUeved  in  that  Association.  She  looked 
to  it  for  help  and  support  in  the  building  up  in  this  country 
of  a  rational  education  for  women. 

We  have  with  us  this  afternoon  a  former  president  of  that 
Association  and  a  co-worker  with  Mrs.  Palmer.  I  ask  Mrs. 
Backus,  of  Brooklyn,  to  say  something  of  Mm.  Palmer's  work 
in  that  Association. 

Rema?-ks  of  Mrs.  Helen  H.  Backus 

MR.  President:  In  this  hour  of  reverent  tribute,  the 
language  of  eulogy  comes  to  seem  the  simple  state- 
ment of  fact.  I  am  sure  that  each  one  here  who  has  heard  com- 
memorated various  phases  of  this  rare  and  wonderful  life,  feels 
a  deep  sense  of  obligation  to  the  chairman  of  the  meeting  and 
to  every  speaker  for  thus  emphasizing  these  qualities  of  Mrs. 
Palmer's  character  and  activity.  I  am  equally  confident  that 

[33] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

each  speaker  has  felt  that  with  him  or  her  has  rested  some 
secret  of  her  power,  some  phase  of  her  influence  which  could 
be  known  in  the  same  degree  to  no  one  else.  As  one  and  an- 
other has  spoken  of  her  heroic  qualities  and  her  wonderful 
power  of  adaptation,  I  have  longed  to  be  able  to  show  how 
far  the  recognition  of  her  leadership  extends  beyond  this  Com- 
monwealth of  Massachusetts,  even  beyond  these  institutions 
of  learning  which  owe  her  so  much. 

Mrs.  Palmer  held  the  chief  executive  office  in  the  Associa- 
tion of  Collegiate  Alumna",  a  national  association  having  mem- 
bers in  nearly  every  State.  It  was  organized,  in  the  days  of  her 
presidency  at  Wellesley,  and  when  even  the  conception  of  a 
woman's  college  was  new.  Still  more  was  it  new  and  vague  in 
1882,  to  think  of  uniting  the  alumnae  of  colleges  and  univer- 
sities for  practical  educational  work,  and  for  the  maintenance 
of  those  standards  without  which  Mrs.  Palmer  felt  that  gen- 
eral education  must  fail  of  its  best  fruition.  In  this  Association 
she  was  from  the  first  a  leader  and  always  a  most  inspiring 
presence.  The  effectiveness  of  her  work  can  be  distinctly  traced 
throughout  the  twenty  years  of  its  history.  There  are  many, 
now  widely'scattered,  who  know  what  counsel  she  gave  in  those 
earlier  days,  what  royal  assistance,  not  only  as  leader  in  the 
Association,  but  as  adviser  to  one  and  another  institution  in 
their  efforts  to  adapt  themsehes  to  the  demands  of  the  new 
education.  We  have  been  following  many  devious  courses  in 
America  in  our  public  and  private  education,  because  it  has 
been  so  difficult  to  define  standards  and,  having  defined  them, 
to  enforce  them.  In  all  the  meetings  of  the  Association  where 
such  questions  were  debated,  there  was  no  one  who  would 
speak  more  wisely  and  more  resolutely  in  behalf  of  higher  and 
better  standards  than  Mrs.  Palmer. 

As  the  league  has  gone  on  augmenting  itself  from  the  few 
college  women  who  gathered  together  twenty  years  ago  to  its 
more  than  three  thousand  members,  INIrs.  Palmer's  faith  and 
insight  have  aroused  ever-new  belief  in  its  possibilities  for 

[34] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  TALMER 

larger  effectiveness.  It  has  always  been  on  her  support  that 
the  Association  has  relied  at  a  difficult  juncture.  When  two 
years  ago,  increasing  work  led  to  the  creation  of  the  new  and 
important  executive  office  of  General  Secretary,  it  was  to  Mrs. 
Palmer  that  the  appeal  was  sent  to  accept  the  responsibility. 
She  generously  gave  the  Association  her  service,  and  in  fulHU- 
ing  these  duties  she  has  gone  in  the  past  year  among  college 
women  in  our  different  communities,  visiting  the  Branches  in 
eleven  different  cities  from  Boston  to  St.  Paul. 

In  this  work,  as  in  all  others,  when  a  new  call  for  service 
came,  it  was  never  a  question  witli  her,  "Is  it  worth  while  for 
me  to  do  this?  Have  I  time  for  this?"  but,  "Is  it  possible,  in 
view  of  this  or  that  undertaking  to  which  I  am  already  pledged, 
to  do  this  work  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  should  be  done?" 
Having  once  accepted  a  service,  she  wrought  to  the  end  with 
unfaltering  courage  and  the  utmost  devotion.  I  have  been  be- 
yond measure  grateful  to  President  Eliot  for  his  word  concern- 
ing Mrs.  Palmer's  courage ;  because  in  the  consecrated  courage 
of  Mrs.  Palmer  lay  one  of  the  great  secrets  of  her  power.  She 
could  do  perpetually,  she  could  do  more  than  any  one  else, 
she  could  do  better  than  almost  any  one  else, — because  the 
larger  vision  was  always  present  with  her.  She  never  thought 
of  herself.  The  smaller  and  more  ignoble  aspects  of  the  work 
which  she  was  called  to  do  always  sank  into  the  proper  per- 
spective in  her  mind,  because  she  looked  above  and  througl) 
them  to  the  great  ends  to  be  accomplished,  to  the  meaning  of 
our  responsibility  to  this  great  country. 

I  would  have  this  memorial  as  lasting  as  our  institutions  of 
learning  and  as  catholic  as  her  own  beautiful  spirit.  iVlice 
Freeman  Palmer  represented  all  that  is  best  in  American 
womanhood.  The  representative  college  woman,  the  centre 
of  wide  social  influence,  the  wife,  the  friend, — she  stood,  in 
her  own  person,  as  the  embodiment  of  that  welding  of  intel- 
lectual interests  and  love  of  home, — an  ideal  which  must  be 
ever  more  and  more  realized  by  the  American  women  of  the 

[35  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

twentieth  century  if  their  rich  heritage  of  opportunity  is  really 
to  bring  blessing  to  our  Republic. 


President  Ei.iot:  I  suppose  the  central  idea  of  INlrs.  Palmer's 
life  was  service.  She  might  have  caught  that  in  her  girlhood 
from  her  father.  She  used  to  drive  about  with  him  in  his  chaise. 
He  was  a  country  doctor ;  and  I  know  no  professional  man  of 
any  calling  who  more  perfectly  illustrates  than  a  country  doc- 
tor the  ideal  of  Christian  service.  Mrs.  Palmer  was  prepared  at 
any  moment  to  spend  and  be  spent  in  any  cause  which  she 
loved  and  to  which  she  was  devoted.  We  perhaps  have  got 
an  idea  this  afternoon  that  her  services  were  rendered  largely 
towards  the  institutions  and  organizations  which  work  for  wo- 
men. And  that  is  indeed  true  of  her.  But  we  should  not  lose 
sight  of  the  more  comprehensive  quality  of  her  service  to  the 
State.  That  was  for  all  the  children,  girls  and  boys.  That  was 
for  all  teachers,  men  and  women.  I  kno^v,  from  a  good  many 
conversations  with  Mrs.  Palmer,  that  she  was  often  called 
upon  to  help  men  educators,  men  presidents  of  colleges.  And 
1  know  how  much  some  of  them  relied  on  her  judgment  and 
her  tact  and  her  perception  of  the  quality  of  the  individual  con- 
cerning whom  advice  was  asked.  I  knov,-,  too,  very  well,  how 
perfectly  her  judgment,  her  recommendation  of  a  woman  for 
a  place  was  justified.  That  is  a  very  high  faculty;  in  the  first 
place,  to  perceive  the  quality  which  gives  success,  and  in  the 
next  place,  to  testify  truly  to  that  quality  and  never  to  give 
another  official  to  understand  that  the  quality  may  exist  where 
it  does  not.  JMrs.  Palmer  w^as  as  good  in  that  last  way  as  she 
was  in  the  first.  She  never  would  give  a  recommendation  to 
a  young  girl  or  an  inexperienced  teacher  which  she  did  not 
believe  would  be  justified  by  the  event. 

I  think  President  Faunce,  of  Brown  University,  knows 
something  about  this  quality  in  Mrs.  Palmer.  I  will  ask  him  to 
speak  a  few  words  to  this  company. 

[36] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

Remarks  o/Tresidkxt  Faincf, 

IT  is  hard  to  die  in  a  foreign  land,  far  from  home  and  friends, 
with  no  opportunity  to  give  or  receive  words  of  parting 
counsel.  And  yet  this  very  fact  makes  this  ending  seem  like 
translation  and  not  like  death.  That  there  is  no  physical  form 
here  makes  this  service  purely  spiritual,  a  service  of  memory, 
affection,  and  gratitude. 

We,  of  Rhode  Island,  are  grateful  to  Mrs.  Palmer.  From 
1893  to  1895,  as  President  Eliot  has  said,  she  was  advisory 
dean  of  one  institution.  After  that,  she  became  advisory  dean 
of  a  multitude  of  schools  and  colleges  and  universities,  stretch- 
ing, as  I  personally  know,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific. 
And  perhaps  in  no  aspect  was  her  work  greater  than  in  this. 
When,  ten  years  ago,  we  began  to  do  something  for  the  col- 
legiate education  of  women  in  Rhode  Island,  the  women  of 
Providence  turned  first  to  Mrs.  Palmer  and  took  counsel  with 
her.  The  imprint  of  her  ideals  has  been  on  our  Women's  Col- 
lege in  Brown  University  all  through  these  ten  years.  When, 
three  years  ago,  we  were  searching  for  a  new  dean  for  oin- 
Women's  College,  I  went  first  to  Mrs.  Palmer.  I  felt  there 
was  no  other  woman  in  tliis  country  to  whom  I  could  go  in 
just  the  same  way  as  to  her.  In  President  Eliot's  house  at 
North  East  Harbor,  in  the  long  sunlight  of  a  September  after- 
noon, we  sat  talking  over  the  problem.  The  first  name  that 
came  to  her  lips  was  the  name  of  the  present  Dean  of  our 
Women's  College.  And  when  Miss  Emery  was  inaugurated 
as  Dean  some  two  years  ago,  Alice  Freeman  Palmer  was  there 
to  speak  words  of  inspiration,  counsel,  and  direction  which  we 
shall  never  forget. 

AVhat  she  did  for  Brown  University,  I  know  she  has  done 
for  many  other  institutions.  In  greater  or  less  degree  she  has 
rendered  service  of  this  kind  at  Oberlin  and  Iceland  Stanford, 
at  RadclifFe,  Smith,  and  Mt.  Holyoke,  at  Barnard,  ^^^ssar,  and 
Wellesley.  What  she  did  at  Chicago  University  I  need  not 

[  ^7  J 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

recall  to  some  of  you  who  are  personally  acquainted  with  it. 
The  primary  impulse  in  a  univei'sity  is  always  the  enduring 
impulse.  What  is  done  in  the  first  year  shapes  what  will  be 
done  in  the  next  fifty  or  one  hundred  years.  At  Cliicago,  Mrs. 
Palmer's  character  and  ideals  had  notable  influence  in  estab- 
lishing right  intellectual  and  social  standards  for  the  entire 
University.  I  have  named  only  a  few  of  the  institutions  that, 
at  crises  in  their  history,  looked  first  to  Mrs.  Palmer  for  counsel 
and  wisdom.  Every  one  of  them  was  sure  of  her  alert,  eager  sym- 
pathy; every  one  of  them  was  sure  of  her  quick  intelligence. 

She  represented  an  admirable  synthesis  of  the  older  and  the 
newer  ideals  of  womanhood.  AVe  need  not  attempt  to  define 
those  ideals.  We  feel  them  rather  than  define  them.  We  can 
all  feel  the  difference  between  a  gentleman  of  the  old  school 
and  one  of  to-day,  the  difference  in  garb  and  speech  and  man- 
ner. Although  we  cannot  define  it,  we  all  feel  the  difference 
between  the  older  conception  of  womanhood  and  the  noblest 
type  of  our  own  time.  These  conceptions  were  never  at  warfare 
in  her  nature.  They  achieved  a  coalescence,  a  perfect  union, 
which  made  her  seem  to  save  the  best  from  the  old  and  great, 
the  best  from  the  new. 

The  last  time  I  saw  her  she  was  on  her  way  to  a  railway 
station.  I  asked  whither  she  was  going.  It  was  to  some  obscure 
little  village  in  Northern  ^^ermont,  where  they  wanted  a  pub- 
lic education  association  in  conjunction  with  other  towns,  and 
she  was  going  on  a  true  missionary  enterprise.  I  thought  of 
the  rough  roads  and  the  inconveniences  in  Northern  Vermont 
in  that  winter  weather  in  which  she  was  starting  out  alone; 
and  I  had  just  a  glimpse  into  the  spirit  that  moved  her,  the  im- 
pulses that  throbbed  within  her,  and  the  ideals  towards  which 
she  aspired,  and  taught  others  to  aspire  in  these  later  and  most 
fruitful  years  of  her  life. 

"It  is  expedient  for  you,  that  I  go  away."  Expedient  for 
Him, — we  could  understand  that.  But  no.  He  said,  "expedi- 
ent for  ?/o?/."  For  He  knew  He  could  not  fully  enter  into  their 

[  -'58  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

lives  and  shape  them  until  He  had  vanished  from  their  sight. 
If  it  shall  prove  expedient  for  the  education  of  American 
womanhood  that  Alice  Freeman  Palmer  should  pass  beyond 
our  vision,  it  will  be  only  because  the  things  she  stood  for  have 
become  our  common  inheritance  and  entered  our  daily  striv- 
ing and  living. 

I  beg  to  suggest  that  the  committee  already  appointed  to 
plan  some  memorial,  shall  arrange  for  other  committees  defi- 
nitely to  provide  for  the  reception  and  disbursement  of  funds 
offered  for  this  purpose. 


President  Eliot:  Dr.  Faunce  has  correctly  described  the 
kind  of  thing  that  INIrs.  Palmer  was  doing  continually.  That 
sallying  out  in  a  winter  night  to  go  to  Northern  \^ermont  was 
just  the  sort  of  thing  that  her  father  used  to  do  forty  years 
before,  and  is,  we  hope,  still  doing. 

And  now,  as  the  last  speaker  of  the  occasion,  I  want  to  call 
on  one  who  has  known  Mrs.  Palmer  well  for  many  years,  and 
one  w^ho  has  always  known  her  husband,  has  know^n  him  as 
a  fellow-student,  a  teacher,  and  a  preachei*.  Mrs.  Palmer  had 
fifteen  years  of  a  singularly  happy  married  life.  It  was  a  great 
part  of  all  her  life,  the  third  of  all.  In  it  were  the  roots  of  much 
of  her  happiness  in  all  her  later  years.  In  it  she  found  sympathy 
and  support  in  all  her  public  work.  I  ask  President  Tucker,  of 
Dartmouth  College,  to  speak  to  us  next  and  last. 

Remarks  of  President  Tucker 

/%  S  I  have  listened,  Mr.  President,  to  the  very  rare  trib- 
l\,  utes  w^hich  have  been  paid  to  Alice  Freeman  Palmer, 
especially  to  her  in  the  various  causes  which  she  represented, 
I  have  had  the  feeling,  which  I  doubt  not  all  share,  that  it  is 
not  we  who  can  best  tell  what  Mrs.  Palmer  did  or  what  she 
w^as.  The  hundreds  of  younger  lives  from  eighteen  to  forty 
which  she  reached  as  has  scarcely  any  one  else  in  our  genera- 

[39] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

tion,  will  tell  that  story.  Yet  if  we  bring  Mrs.  Palmer  back 
to  those  personal  relations  which  she  sustained  to  us,  we  can 
understand  something  of  the  exquisite  quality  of  the  life  which 
went  out  so  widely  and  so  generously.  It  seems  to  me  tliat 
there  has  been  no  other  one  of  our  generation,  with  the  pos- 
sible exception  of  Phillips  Brooks,  who  has  stood  to  such  a 
degree  for  those  qualities  in  which  we  must  all  believe  with 
an  unquenchable  faith  if  Ave  are  to  do  anything  in  this  world. 
And  her  going  out  from  that  circle  of  workers  which  we  rep- 
resent takes  from  us  one  of  the  greatest  sources  of  our  person- 
al strength. 

In  naming  one  or  two  qualities  in  which  she  stood  for  so 
much,  I  would  suggest  at  once  the  perfect  naturalness  of  her 
service  and  of  her  sacrifice.  She  never  had  about  her  the  taint 
of  the  conventional ;  she  was  never  institutionalized.  She  was 
always  herself,  in  the  perfect  freedom  of  her  spirit.  She  was  not 
only  not  impoverished  by  her  giving,  but  she  seemed  never  to 
lose  the  power  of  giving  herself.  We  do.  It  is  almost  impos- 
sible for  us  not  to  become  artificial,  not  to  resolve  ourselves 
into  our  institutions,  into  our  surroundings,  into  something 
other  than  our  simple  best.  JNIrs.  Palmer  was  always  herself  in 
the  perfect,  inexhaustible  freedom  of  her  spirit.  It  will  be  hard 
for  us  to  get  on  Avithout  her.  One  can  number  people  of  that 
kind  in  very  small  figures,  and  of  those  whom  one  knows,  in 
smaller  numbers  still.  I  never  went  into  the  home  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Palmer  in  Cambridge  or  in  Boxford  without  feeling  how 
small  some  of  the  things  were  which  I  had  allowed  to  come  to 
the  front,  or  how  much  better  it  would  be  to  live  in  a  larger, 
freer  way  and  in  a  more  natural  way. 

I  do  not  say  that  she  had  the  stamp  of  originality  as  some 
minds  may  show  that  quality,  but  she  lived  in  the  world,  she 
lived  in  the  universe.  She  had  a  wonderful  understanding  of 
things,  partly  through  conscience,  partly  through  heart;  but. 
after  all,  essentially  through  the  mind ;  so  that  when  she  gave 
of  herself,  she  gave  her  whole  nature.  She  was  catholic  in  her 

[  40  ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

giving  because  she  was  catholic  in  her  receiving.  She  lived  in 
the  large,  she  gave  in  the  large;  so  I  emphasize  her  ability  to 
receive  much.  The  catholicity  of  her  mind  gave  her  this  rare 
quality  of  receptiveness.  It  kept  her  in  the  asking  and  search- 
ing mood  —  or,  as  some  one  has  said,  always  on  the  eager  quest 
after  truth.  She  was  able  to  believe  much  because  of  her  con- 
stant increase  of  knowledge.  Faith  renewed  itself  in  sight. 
The  believing  quality  was  an  actual  extension  of  her  power  to 
know, — her  power  to  know  with  an  undeniable  certainty.  Her 
death,  then,  means  as  much  to  those  who  are  trying  to  do  the 
world's  work,  as  to  those  who  were  directly  dependent  upon 
her  for  guidance  and  quickening.  The  qualities  which  we  wish 
to  see  constantly  manifest,  were  embodied  in  Alice  Freeman 
Palmer,  and  found  their  highest  and  most  natural  expression 
through  her  home  and  in  her  service. 

As  we  plan  this  memorial  let  us  make  whatever  enters  into 
it,  a  truly  personal  and  appreciative  gift.  Let  us  make  it  wide 
and  let  us  make  it  free.  Let  us  give  every  one  the  opportimity 
to  contribute,  and  also  the  assurance  that  whatever  is  given 
will  be  wisely  expended  on  a  careful  design. 

I  beg  leave,  Mr.  President,  to  gather  up  the  suggestions 
which  have  been  made  and  to  embody  them  in  this  motion: 

RESOLVED :  That  a  committee  of  three,  who  have  al- 
ready been  named,  President  Eliot,  Governor  Crane  and 
IMrs.  Quincy  A.  Shaw,  be  appointed  to  clioose  the  form  of  me- 
morial best  adapted  to  perpetuate  the  life  and  work  of  Ahce 
Freeman  Palmer;  to  arrange  for  committees  to  receive  all 
funds  and  to  select  certain  business  men  to  act  as  treasurers 
for  holding  such  funds  until  the  conditions  of  final  payment 
are  determined. 

Miss  Hazard:  May  I  suggest  that  President  Tucker  and 
Richard  Watson  Gilder  be  added  to  the  committee? 

[  41   ] 


ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

The  Resolution,  as  read  by  President  Tucker,  and  as  amended 
by  the  suggestion  of  Miss  Hazard,  was  then  unanimously 
adopted. 


President  Eliot:  Has  Mr.  Morse  anything  to  add  to  the 
proceedings  of  this  meeting  ? 

Mr.  Morse  :  It  seems  fitting  that  before  we  part,  the  words 
of  Mrs.  Palmer,  spoken  at  the  memorial  services  of  Mrs.  Mary 
B.  Claflin,  the  wife  of  ex-Governor  Claflin,  should  be  heard, 
as  they  may  seem  addressed  to  us  also.  She  said : 

"  This  is  my  message: 

"  All  life  is  one.  All  service  is  one,  be  it  here  or  there.  Death  is 
'■'•  onhj  a  little  door  Jrom  one  room  to  another.  So  she  begs  us 
"  in  all  her  rich  and  iridiajit  life  and  memory  not  to  make  much 
"  of  trouble,  not  to  be  weighed  down  here  by  sorrow,  not  to 
"  think  much  or  to  be  afraid  of  death  for  07irselves  or  for  those 
"  who  are  dear  to  us;  but  to  make  life  hc7'e  and  now,  so  rich 
"  and  kind  and  sxccct  and  noble,  that  this  will  be  heaven.  We 
"  need  no  other  iintil  He  comes  and  calls  us  into  a  larger  life 
"  tdth  a  fresher  opj)ortunity.'' 

President  Eliot:  I  think  we  may  part  with  the  renewed 
conviction  that  the  realest  things  in  this  world  are  personali- 
ties and  the  ideals  which  personalities  cherish.  Alice  Freeman 
Palmer  has  planted  in  the  minds  of  thousands  of  Americans, 
young  and  old,  men  and  women,  boys  and  girls,  a  permanent 
ideal. 

This  Meeting  is  now  dissolved. 


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